Lenses and techniques for close-ups

[Bjørn Rørslett]

This is a spin-off from the 'Old School Nikkors' thread, in which a lot of interesting stuff and examples of close-ups were posted. It is believed this material would be easier accessible if the material is presented in its own dedicated thread. The Admins will go through that thread and move suitable posts over here in due time.

Feel free to contribute any relevant information on close-up techniques, gear of choice, and picture examples here.

[FlyingO]

My close-up lens choice, time after time, will always be the Micro-Nikkor 55mm f2.8. I've been shooting with "real world" equipment (not thousand dollar lenses) for over 40 years and have not seen better. - Just my opinion. I wish I did have crazy amounts of money so I could try expensive gear. But I don't.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

The Micro-Nikkors are great, but they will only get you out to max. 2:1 or something. If one is lucky to have the full set of Macro-Nikkors or similar specialised lenses, 20:1 or better is available, but the setup is hardly field-friendly any more.

In the range in between lots of solutions exist and I hope members share their experiences.

[Matthew Currie]

I'll bite with one setup that works pretty well on DX format, and because it is very light and small allows for hand holding, even though it has no focus or aperture control at all. 

The picture is a couple of years old, and the head shown is no longer in use. I now have Kirk ball head. The Manfrotto head shown was jerky.

The camera is a D3200, in manual mode of course.  The lenses are from a turret set that came off a Compugraphic typesetting machine.  The range of those I have varies,  in part depending on how far they're inserted into the holder, but they work pretty nicely down to about 1:2 or a little more.   The aperture of the lenses is approximate, but seems to be around F5.6 for the shorter ones, F8 or so for the longest, which is about 1:3.5.

The adapter is a Konica microscope adapter with a Nikon bayonet retrofitted.  The rail is from a Minolta auto bellows, which was beautifully engineered in two pieces.  The tripod pad was home made originally for a Nikon F, the rear section cut off so it would stow better in the case.  Current Kirk setup has a home made Arca pad.  The flash is a Nikon SB-15 on a tilt adapter from some bubble pack rack long ago.  Because it uses a cable to get past the tilt, it also serves as a hot-shoe to cable, or cable to hot-shoe adapter. The built in flash works pretty well too.  It's all manual, of course.  No metering, no TTL, etc. here. 

Of course, there's not much Nikkor in this rig.  For Nikkor goodness, I have the 85/2.8 D tilt shift lens, which is very nice despite not going deeper than 2:1 without extensions, but it's also heavy and the home made rig is easier to hand hold.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

To clarify, by "1:2" do you mean half, or double, life-size magnification?

Your nomenclature indicates their magnification is m=0.5, but that is in conflict of the statement "2:1" for the 85 mm PC-Nikkor, the latter which only does 0.5X (m=0.5 or 1:2).

By the way, nice to see the old SB-15 in use again. It really was a nifty flash unit for its time.

[the solitaire]

I do not do that much close-up photography so I have not invested in gear heavily there.

Items I do use are:

105mm and 55mm micro Nikkors
PK-11, PK-12, PK-13 and PN-11

But when I want to get real close I mount the 200mm f4 Nikkor-Q.C on my camera, stick a HS-7 hood on the front, in reverse, and again in reverse, mount either a 50mm f1,4 or 24mm f2,8 on the HS-7/200mm f4 for a ~4x or ~8x enlargement.

Will post photographs later

[Matthew Currie]

To clarify, by "1:2" do you mean half, or double, life-size magnification?

Your nomenclature indicates their magnification is m=0.5, but that is in conflict of the statement "2:1" for the 85 mm PC-Nikkor, the latter which only does 0.5X (m=0.5 or 1:2).

By the way, nice to see the old SB-15 in use again. It really was a nifty flash unit for its time.

Sorry, I always get that backwards.  The 85 gets 1:2 of course, and the home made rig gets varying amounts with 2:1 being pretty comfortable, and something around 3.5 to 1 near the max.

[longzoom]

20160326-056 by 20160326-056-4 by longzoom, on Flickros/longzoom/]longzoom[/url], on Flickr.    It is part of the lettering on $50 bill, crop.  The old 70-210/4-5.6 AF Nikkor was in use, with Nikkor 50/1.8 G set on it , in opposite direction, wide open. So the magn. about 5:1 was reached. A crop to show the resolving power of this monster combo.  In case of emergency one needs a tape only, and piece of paper to keep the aperture of 50 wide open - put it under the aperture lever.  LZ

[Bjørn Rørslett]

When one stack two lenses, it is tempting to operate the aperture on the master lens next to the camera. However, one should definitively stop down the first lens (the reversed one) to get best quality. Set the master lens wide open.

There are nifty adapters that allow a reversed lens to stay open until time for the actual capture. Look for E-2 or BR-6.

[longzoom]

Thank you, Bjorn! Unfortunately, in my case, there is no way to step down the G lens, but put a smaller piece of paper under the aperture lever, to let it be close, to, say,  5.6 or 8, or anything between. Thanks, will try this way next time! LZ

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Use an E2 or BR-5/6 adapter and block the aperture at a suitable position so it won't stop all the way down. A piece of a broken match stick is the perfect tool for the job ... With the adapter you can keep the aperture open until shooting starts.

[Airy]

I get good results with the 55/2.8 AIS mounted on Olympus OM-D E-M1 via an adaptor (Novoflex). The crop factor yields an apparent 1:1 magnification. Image is very clean. Focus peaking works and is helpful. As the stabilisation will also work, this is a good, light combination for field work. In addition, the FL is also suitable for other purposes, although I prefer to mount a canon FD 50/1.4 (if not the oly 45/1..

[Bjørn Rørslett]

You still get 1:2, but less coverage ...

The distinction is important because it influences the calculated  depth of field and above all, the effective aperture and thereby the exposure.

[Airy]

I said "apparent"

[Bjørn Rørslett]

True, but keeping the distinction in mind is important. Magnification is a scale and thus is not influenced by format. Coverage at a given magnification is. Life-size 1:1, or m=1, can be covering a small flower, or a human face. The first is for 24x36(FX), the latter is with 8x10" cameras. The depth of field at the same aperture is exactly the same in either case.